The mechanisms of peace

June 16, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

The UN, the IMF, and the ICC have their critics. But they are vast improvements on what came before.

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Suicide bombers on motorcycles simultaneously attacked two buildings including the national police academy in Chad's capital on Monday, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others in the first assault of its kind since Islamic militants threatened the country earlier this year, witnesses said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but suspicion quickly fell on Boko Haram, the group based in neighboring Nigeria that already has attacked Chadian villages along the lake that divides the two countries.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth led celebrations on Monday to mark 800 years since the sealing of the Magna Carta, one of the world's most significant historical documents and credited with paving the way for modern freedoms and human rights. On June 15, 1215, in fields by the banks of the River Thames at Runnymede to the west of London, England's King John agreed to the demands of his rebelling barons and accepted the Magna Carta, Latin for "Great Charter," which for the first time placed the monarch under the rule of law. In the centuries since, it has taken on huge global significance, becoming the basis for the US Bill of Rights, the US Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Three of its 63 clauses still remain on Britain's statute book.

The embattled archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis and a deputy bishop resigned Monday after prosecutors there charged the archdiocese with having failed to protect children from unspeakable harm from a pedophile priest. The Vatican said Pope Francis accepted the resignations of Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche. They resigned under the code of canon law that allows bishops to resign before they retire because of illness or some other "grave" reason that makes them unfit for office.

Many of the people missing after muddy floodwaters swamped the area around Tbilisi Zoo in Georgia turned up safe on Monday, but the fate of 10 people and an undetermined number of potentially dangerous animals was still unknown.The death toll rose to 13 from 12 when cleanup crews found the body of an elderly man in his home on Monday afternoon, the Interior Ministry said. The zoo was still trying to determine what had happened to four lions, three tigers and one jaguar whose enclosures were flooded on Sunday, zoo spokeswoman Khatia Basilashvili said.

Amnesty International urged world leaders Monday to radically overhaul refugee policies and create a comprehensive global strategy to deal with the crisis, describing it as the worst emergency of its kind since World War II. The human rights watchdog issued a report Monday suggesting that world leaders have abandoned millions of refugees to "an unbearable existence" and left thousands more to die by failing to provide basic human protections. It estimated that some 50 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes in 2013.

Gun maker Colt Defense LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late Sunday, allowing for a quicker sale of operations in the US and Canada. In its filing, the company estimated that it owes up to $500 million to up to 50 creditors. It also listed assets of up to $500 million. The West Hartford, Connecticut-based company said it secured $20 million in financing from its current lenders and will continue to operate while in bankruptcy. The company was founded in 1855 by Samuel Colt and the revolvers it produced helped propel the firearms industry away from single-shot pistols. More recently, it was a supplier of the M4 carbine to the US military.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

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